1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to a high speed Serial Attached SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) (SAS) connector mounted on a printed circuit board.
2. Description of Related Art
Parallel ATA (Advanced Technology Attachment) and parallel SCSI are two dominant disk interfaces technologies today. The parallel ATA disks are widely used in desktop PCs and mobile PCs, and the parallel SCSI disks are mainly used in high-volume servers and subsystems. As disk interconnect speeds continue to rise, existing parallel ATA and parallel SCSI buses are reaching their performance limits because that parallel transmissions are susceptible to crosstalk across multiple streams of wide ribbon cable that adds line noise and can cause signal errorsxe2x80x94a pitfall that has been remedied by slowing the signal transmitting speed, limiting cable length or both. Therefore, new interconnect technologies are needed to meet performance requirements going forward. The serial technology is emerging as a solution to the problem. The main advantage of serial technology is that while it does move data in a single point-to-point stream, it does so much faster than parallel technology because it is not fired to a particular clock speed.
Serial ATA (SATA) is a serial version of ATA, which is expected to be a replacement for parallel ATA. U.S. Pat. No. 6,331,122 discloses a type of SATA receptacle connector for being mounted on a printed circuit board. The receptacle connector has two receiving cavities defined in an insulative housing thereof and two sets of conductive contacts respectively used for power and signal transmission installed in the insulative housing. U.S. Pat. No. D469,407 discloses an electrical connector assembly with a SATA plug connector as a part thereof. The plug connector has a first and a second generally L-shaped tongue plates receiving two sets of terminals for electrically connecting the conductive contacts as the tongue plates are inserted into the respective receiving cavities of the receptacle connector.
SAS is a successor to the parallel SCSI and is also based on serial technology. Besides the advantage of higher speed signal transmission, another most significant advantage is the SAS interface will also be compatible with SATA drives. In other words, the SATA plug connector can plug directly into an SAS receptacle connector if supported in the system. By this way, the system builders are flexible to integrate either SAS or SATA devices and slash the costs associated with supporting two separate interfaces.
The SAS plug connector has generally the same configuration as the SATA plug connector except that the first and the second tongue plates of the SATA plug connector are merged in a large one of the SAS plug connector by a third tongue plate, and a third set of signal contacts are assembled to a second surface of the third tongue plate opposing to a first surface where two sets of contacts have already being assembled. When the SAS plug connector mates with the SAS receptacle connector, the united first, second and the third tongue plates are inserted into a receiving cavity of the receptacle connector. However, the total length of the tongue plates is relatively long, the ability of resisting an inadvertent bending force of the SAS plug connector is relatively weak. Thus, a strengthened SAS plug connector is highly desired to overcome the disadvantages of the related art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electrical connector, which can provide a reliable electrical connection with a complementary connector.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention comprises an insulative housing and a plurality of first and second contacts. The insulative housing comprises a first body portion defining a first and a second pin receiving spaces to receive the second contacts and a second body portion. The second body portion comprises a base, a tongue portion extending forwardly from the base, a pair of end walls extending forwardly from the base and a strengthening wall extending from the base and connecting with the pair of end walls. The tongue portion comprises a first, a second and a third tongue sections connecting with the first and the second tongue sections. The thickness of the third tongue section is greater than each of those of the first and the second tongue sections. The first contacts are grouped into a first set, a second set and a third set of first contacts respectively received in the second body portion. The first and the second sets of first contacts, the third set of first contacts are arranged in two rows.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.